wildfire evacuation – Enviro Updates

Neighbors voice concerns with planned senior housing development on Highway 12

March 25, 2026

Paulina Pineda, PRESS DEMOCRAT

The latest proposal for housing on a 69-acre expanse off Highway 12 in eastern Santa Rosa faced close scrutiny and even outright opposition from some neighbors who packed a Monday meeting to get a first look at the project.

For about an hour, the new developers and city staffers were hit with comments from concerned residents who worry adding hundreds of new residents there would worsen congestion on the narrow, two-lane highway, particularly during an emergency.

Critics also raised concerns about the project’s impact on wildlife and water resources.

The discussion held at the Oakmont Village East Recreation Center served as a first public test for affordable housing developer Burbank Housing, which purchased the property three years ago.

Burbank’s proposal calls for 275 apartments and single-family homes in a 55-and-older mixed-income neighborhood.

Land UseBurbank Housing, Elnoka/SESR, Highway 12, Oakmont, traffic, wildfire evacuation, wildlife corridor

Residents to get look at new senior development planned on long-contested Highway 12 site

March 21, 2026

Paulina Pineda, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Residents will get a first public look at the proposal during a neighborhood meeting Monday, March 23 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Oakmont Village East Recreation Center, 7902 Oakmont Dr.

Revived plans for a long-contested housing proposal on Santa Rosa’s eastern edges are wending their way through the city development pipeline three years after the property changed hands.

The new owners, affordable housing developer Burbank Housing, envision transforming the 69-acre expanse off Highway 12 and Elnoka Lane into an age-restricted, mixed-income neighborhood.

The proposal calls for 275 apartments and single-family homes and about half the property would be preserved as open space.

Burbank officials say the project would add high-quality senior housing in eastern Santa Rosa, including much needed affordable housing, to meet the needs of a growing segment of the population that is increasingly being edged out of the market by rising prices, spokesperson Stefanie Bagala said.

Land Useaffordable housing, Burbank Housing, Elnoka/SESR, Highway 12, Oakmont, senior housing, traffic, wildfire evacuation

Silent partner in project to transform Sonoma Developmental Center

November 29, 2025

Phil Barber, PRESS DEMOCRAT

In September 2005, a Stockton-based developer known as the Grupe Company paid nearly $500,000 to Riverbank, a town in Stanislaus County with about 20,000 people at the time. The money would allow the city to update its general plan. One public policy professor said at the time that he’d never heard of a private business funding a general plan, which serves as a blueprint for growth and land use.

The final study proposed three alternatives for Riverbank, all of which carved out specific benefits for the Grupe Company. After an outcry by residents, the Riverbank City Council approved a plan that would slash proposed Grupe development by half. Months later, the developer announced it was no longer interested in paying for the update.

It was a “valuable lesson in developer tactics,” as a Modesto Bee editorial put it at the time, that would seem to have nothing to do with the North Bay.

But the Grupe Company is on the verge of becoming an important player here, too. It makes up half of Eldridge Renewal LLC, the partnership selected by the state to redevelop the historic Sonoma Developmental Center campus at the western edge of Sonoma Valley.

Habitats, Land UseGrupe Company, master-planned community, Sonoma Developmental Center, Sonoma Valley, wildfire evacuation, wildlife corridor

Public meeting on revised Sonoma Developmental Center plan set for Sept. 25

September 16, 2025

Phil Barber, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Local residents have had a number of opportunities over the past three years to weigh in on evolving plans to transform the historic Sonoma Developmental Center property near Glen Ellen with a mix of housing and commercial space.

They’ll have another shot next week as the county embarks on its latest attempt to shore up an environmental study that can pass muster in court, if not with project critics.

On Sept. 25, at Altamira Middle School in Sonoma, the county will host a public scoping meeting with its contracted planning firm, Oakland-based Dyett and Bhatia.

The meeting comes as many residents continue to call on the county for a scaled-down project, following a Sonoma County judge’s harsh rebuke of the original environmental impact report Dyett and Bhatia prepared for the site.

That ruling assessed the most recent plan for the 180-acre core campus, submitted in August 2023 by developer Eldridge Renewal, a partnership between Napa-based builder Keith Rogal and Stockton-based Grupe Company. It calls for 990 residential units in a diverse range of sizes and styles, plus 130,000 square feet of commercial space, a 150-room hotel, a community center, gym, new fire station and about 70 acres of outdoor common area.

Land Use, Wildlifehousing, Sonoma Developmental Center, wildfire evacuation, wildlife corridor

Sonoma County emergency preparedness falls short, grand jury says, warning of ‘chaotic, life-threatening’ evacuations

June 29, 2025

Emma Murphy, PRESS DEMOCRAT

The report comes weeks after local fire officials warned the region is likely to experience a long peak fire season.

Despite years of work and extensive investments to bolster its disaster planning and response, Sonoma County remains ill-prepared for emergency evacuations in the event of another regional firestorm, flood or other major disaster, the county’s civil grand jury has concluded in a new report.

The stinging assessment comes even after the strides the county, local cities and grassroots groups have taken after the 2017 firestorm and subsequent disasters to improve planning for the type of large emergencies that can displace thousands of people at a time.

The tools and protocols now in place, the grand jury found, function only as a foundation for evacuation plans — and those plans, covering much of the region, lack the detailed, proactive steps to ensure they can work, especially along the county’s sprawling rural road network, the new report says.

The panel faulted the county for its lack of modern modeling technology to evaluate evacuation routes and plan around known traffic choke points. The county also depends too heavily on cellphone networks and the internet to communicate alerts — an unreliable method for rural residents, according to the 20-page report.

“Without accelerated investment in planning, communications, and road improvements — and full compliance with California’s legal standards — the risk of chaotic, life-threatening evacuations remains high,” the report states.

Climate Change & Energy, Transportationemergency warning, fire danger, flooding, wildfire evacuation

Hanna Center abandons large housing, hotel project next to its Sonoma Valley campus

March 6, 2025

Daniel Johnson, SONOMA INDEX-TRIBUNE

• Hanna Center has canceled its 60-acre development plan to focus on strengthening mental health and community programs.

• New initiatives include a community mental health center and expanded residential services for youth.

• Hanna Center aims to enhance collaboration and sustainability while serving Sonoma Valley effectively.

Hanna Center officials have confirmed they are dropping ambitious housing and commercial development plans on a 60-acre property next to their sprawling campus in Sonoma Valley, where neighbors’ concerns about the project’s scale and issues such as wildfire evacuation clouded its future.

It was one of the largest proposed developments in Sonoma Valley, calling for more than 600 homes in various types of housing as well as a hotel, retail and office development and open space off Agua Caliente Road next to the 76-year-old center, a residential campus for at-risk youth that also provides some services for adults.

Concerned neighbors said it would overtax water and sewage systems and worsen traffic congestion, which could be particularly problematic in the event of a wildfire.

Land Use, Transportationsprawl development, urban infrastructure, wildfire evacuation

How Santa Rosa-based app Watch Duty became an indispensable tool during Los Angeles’ wildfires

January 16, 2025

Martin Espinoza, PRESS DEMOCRAT

It combines updates from authorities, some gleaned from their own internal dispatches, with fire maps, photos, live video from fire lookout cameras, notices of evacuation orders and weather warnings, road and school closures.

On a mid-August afternoon three and a half years ago, a handful of volunteers monitoring emergency radio traffic about a wildfire start in Lake County sent out their first coordinated public safety alert through a startup cellphone app.

That first message on Watch Duty reached about 6,000 enrolled users in the original three-county territory, including Sonoma, Napa and Mendocino counties.

Today, Watch Duty, based in Santa Rosa and powered by a network of wildfire monitors that stretches across the globe, covers 1,476 counties in 22 U.S. states.

It has about 16 million active users, more than half of whom have downloaded the app since the start of the devastating wildfires a week ago in Los Angeles.

Climate Change & Energy, Forests, Land Usefire, fire warning, wildfire evacuation